You could almost hear the sound of barrels being scraped in Bristol tonight as that great bastion of top notch journalism, the Bristol Post, ran a story with the following heartwarming headline: “Mayor George Ferguson volunteers his time to sell poppies for the RBL.”
“Dressed in his signature red trousers,” gushes the Post, “the Mayor spent an hour outside Bristol Cathedral chatting to people and collecting donations.” A whole hour: wow! And guess what? The man is almost a hero himself, as the Post further explained: “Many people were pleased to see their elected Mayor doing his bit for charity, and used it as an opportunity to ask Mr Ferguson about various projects in the city such as the arena.”
Now I’m sorry, but is this the best our local newspaper can do? I am all in favour of promoting the sale of poppies and, yes, I am pleased that Ferguson was able to spare a short time away from his main job of battering local motorists to finally do something useful, but this hardly qualifies as a news story, does it?
The article itself could even have been written by the mayor’s spin doctors, such was the brevity of content and that it featured no less than three photographs of the great man “doing his bit.”
I know about newspapers. When I was involved in a trade union back in the 1980s, if I wanted a story in the paper, I would send a press release. The Post would run the story almost verbatim if I wrote it well enough. Who’s to say that Bristol City Council’s expensive media team couldn’t have done the same thing?
The British Legion appear to be doing quite well enough, as it happens, but I am sure that Ferguson will not have failed to consider the good publicity he will have gained before next year’s mayoral election. He’ll be at a Food Bank near you soon enough, or perhaps changing water to wine. George is a versatile man, especial when it comes to rustling up a few votes.
